A waste picker in Johannesburg.
Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/BloombergPicking Trash for $1.20 an Hour in the World’s Most Unequal Nation
In the financial capital of South Africa, an informal army of collectors find their best chance of income curbside in wealthy suburbs.
Luyanda Hlatshwayo wakes up at 4 a.m. in the abandoned inner-city school building with shattered windows he calls home. He stuffs a pair of worker’s gloves in his pocket and rides a warehouse trolley like a giant skateboard to a suburb of South Africa’s economic metropolis, Johannesburg: It’s garbage collection day.
The 35-year-old university dropout often makes the 8-kilometer trip on an empty stomach—he can only afford to eat twice a day. Time is precious because he must salvage as many recyclables as possible—tin cans, plastic bottles, cardboard boxes—before the city garbage trucks arrive.